![]() 24, the one-year anniversary of the war, the Wall Street Journal’s LAURENCE NORMAN and ISABEL COLES report. RUSSIA STRENGTHENS POSITIONS: Russia is entrenching itself deeper in places like Bakhmut ahead of a long-suspected offensive on Feb. “The more long-range our weapons are and the more mobile our troops are the sooner Russia’s brutal aggression will end,” he wrote in a tweet. Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY thanked Biden for the assistance. The whole package includes $425 million coming from a Presidential Drawdown and $1.75 billion taken from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. “This gives them a longer range capability, long-range firing capability that will enable them to conduct operations in defense of their country, and to take back their sovereign territory in Russian occupied areas,” Ryder said. defense contractors to do the necessary retrofits.ĭoD spokesperson Ryder called the weapons the most notable part of the package. It’s normally launched from the air and the ground-launched version does not yet exist in U.S. The weapon, the Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb, is made up of a precision-guided 250-pound bomb strapped to a rocket motor and fired from a ground launcher. ![]() just announced small-diameter bombs will feature as part of the new $2.2 billion security assistance package for Ukraine. And Spanish-language press reports a similar balloon appeared over Costa Rica on Thursday, though the suspicion is that that one is for weather-tracking purposes - even if it didn’t have permission to be in the air. Last February, for example, F-22s were scrambled to check on a balloon off the coast of Hawaii. PATRICK RYDER, the chief Pentagon spokesperson, told reporters Friday afternoon.Įvents like this have happened in recent years. It’s still traveling 60,000 feet in the air over the center of the continental United States moving eastward, Brig Gen. STEVE DAINES (R-Mont.) demanded a classified briefing when they return to Washington. JON TESTER (D-Mont.), who chairs the chamber’s panel that controls the Pentagon budget, said in a statement. “We are still waiting for real answers on how this happened and what steps the administration took to protect our country, and I will hold everyone accountable until I get them,” Sen. “This issue would have narrowed the agenda in a way that would have been unhelpful and unconstructive,” a senior State Department official said in a Friday briefing.Īnother is that President JOE BIDEN is fielding congressional heat, including from his own party. The balloon burst Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN’s much-anticipated visit to Beijing on Sunday, which has been indefinitely postponed. And while China has many advanced satellites, balloons are more maneuverable, their location less predictable and can hover when needed. It’s more likely that it’s on the hunt for U.S. defense official said there’s still no clear intelligence assessment about Beijing’s goals, though this person hoped that information could come in as soon as Friday evening.Įxperts suspect the balloon isn’t used for weather research, as Beijing claims. The administration is still unsure what China, whose officials claimed the device was a “civilian airship,” meant to achieve. ![]() ROGER MARSHALL (R-Kan.), the balloon was above northeast Kansas. 28, left it on the 30th and then reentered U.S. The official, along with others cited here, was not authorized to speak publicly.Ī congressional aide, who listened in on a Friday Pentagon briefing, said the balloon entered Alaskan airspace on Jan. “The last thing we wanted was for something the size of a school bus to go through the roof of a preschool,” a U.S. Northern Command - worried that destroying a large aircraft would pose a civilian risk to anyone within a 20 mile by 20 mile area. MARK MILLEY, the Joint Chiefs chair, and Gen. Shooting it down with F-22 fighter jets was an option, but senior Defense Department officials - including Gen. Today has been a wild ride, so let’s unpack what sparked this ballooning U.S.-China crisis.Ī sky-high Chinese balloon was found floating above northwest Montana, home of one of America’s three nuclear missile silos, at Malmstrom Air Force Base. A sky-high Chinese balloon was found floating above northwest Montana, home of one of America’s three nuclear missile silos, at Malmstrom Air Force Base.
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